Smash hit

A doctor who tried to help ordered him to cover the wound with his hand and press down. A driver coming the other way offered to take her to hospital in his car, but they took a wrong turn down a dead end and had to switch her body to another car.

Protesters screamed at drivers to clear away through the jams but Neda was dead before she reached the operating theatre at Shariati Hospital, said Mr Panahi.

"She was a person full of joy," he added. "She was a beam of light. I'm so sorry. I was so hopeful for this woman...

"This is a crime that's not in support of the government, this is a crime against humanity."

Family and friends who called at the apartment in great numbers to pay their respects said that Neda was born in Tehran, the second of three children. Her father is a civil servant on a modest salary and her mother a housewife.

After studying Islamic philosophy at Azad university in Tehran, she decided to work in tourism, taking private lessons to become a tour guide and studying Turkish with a view to leading tour groups abroad.

She is said to have loved travel and she and two friends had been on package tours to Thailand, Dubai and, two months ago, to Turkey. Persian pop music was one of her passions and she was taking piano lessons. She was also a talented singer.

Miss Soltan was not a political activist, said her friends. It was her anger at the election results that impelled her out onto the streets to join Saturday's protest.

Friends had begged her not to go, but she replied that she was not afraid to die. "Don't worry, it's just one bullet and then it's over."

"She couldn't stand the injustice of it," said Mr Panahi. "All she wanted was the proper vote of the people to be counted. She wanted to show with her presence that, 'I'm here, I also voted, and my vote wasn't counted'. It was a very peaceful act of protest, without any violence."

Denied a public funeral, the mourners travelled in minivans to Behesht Zahra cemetery where Neda was laid to rest on Sunday afternoon. It was a muted affair, as they were - to their fury - under official orders not to sing her praises loudly or to mourn her loss.

They declined to speak but Mr Panahi said he had nothing left to lose in speaking out. "They know me. They know where I am. They can come and get me whenever they want. My time has gone. We have to think about the young people.

"When they kill an innocent child, that is not justice. That is not religion. In no way is this acceptable."

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